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Developing positive relationships with nature through outdoor play and education may lead to increased environmental consciousness in adults. Building on past research showing the influence of early memories on adult decision making, this study strives to understand how childhood play outdoors relates to adult values of nature and their potential desire to share similar outdoor experiences with others. Utilizing the Nature Relatedness Scale and semi-structured qualitative interviews, I have explored a deeper understanding of the relationship between parents' memories of play outdoors and their subsequent decisions for their children. Reflecting on many of my own meaningful outdoor experiences alongside those of my parent participants, I have discovered that nature experiences are valued across different perspectives. Due to memorable outdoor experiences, these adults have taken action to offer their children similar meaningful opportunities in nature.

This research explores the role of co-learning in addressing water issues, being both context sensitive and responsive to the needs, lived experiences and symbolic representations of people at the local level in the case of the West Bank. Water is essential to the wellbeing of all societies, not only due to the necessity of water for life, but because it connects us to stories about place, beliefs and norms, identity and others, through the meanings that it invariably comes to embody. This research critically examines the significance for learning of freshwater: as a physical necessity; as a metaphor; and, as a source of meaning in the context of community-based water interventions. The dominance of particular narratives around water in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are discussed, as these have resulted in the acceptance of specific understandings about the problems and solutions to the water shortages that are experienced across the West Bank in differentiated ways. The effects of these narratives on water intervention processes and outcomes are observed, being most adverse in relation to local ownership, agency and identity as well as sustainability. A meaning-based framework is proposed based on an understanding of sense of place and a socio-political perspective of water shortages, as a way to reconnect the discourse with Palestinians' own accounts of water and place, and to provide opportunities to explore NGO engagement with divergent knowledges, perspectives, and priorities during interventions. It is argued that water interventions can be understood as a social learning process, which NGOs may be ideally situated to mediate. A model of learning and sustainable development is revisited and revised in order to consider the relationship between participation, agency and sustainability in relation to community-based water interventions.

The relevance of places to people has been questioned in recent times, as the world has become increasingly globalised and people more mobile. The aim of this research was to explore the relationship between sense of place and people’s behaviour in ‘ordinary’, everyday places. This contrasts with much prior research, which has focused on ‘special’ places, such as national parks and impressive landscapes in order to investigate the components of sense of place. Most people do not live in such places, but inhabit ordinary places in (sub) urban contexts. The research questions were: How does sense of place manifest in an ordinary, everyday landscape? In what ways can social learning impact upon the dynamics of sense of place? Can a more salient sense of place affect people’s attitudes towards and behaviour within their local area? Using an action research approach, pre- and post-interviews and three workshops to create a sustainable future vision at a neighbourhood level of scale, and the town as a whole, were held with fourteen residents of East Bolton, in the North West of England. The activities were designed to facilitate interaction between the participants, so that meanings attributed to places could be shared and discussed. This approach allowed participants to see familiar places in new ways and to share perspectives. The key themes that emerged from this research were: the importance of childhood places; the impact of mobility – both physical and social mobility; the interdependence of places at various scales; and also self-efficacy and people’s ability to influence their surroundings. A key finding was that sense of place can be made more salient for people in ‘ordinary’ landscapes, particularly if people are given direct experience of their places and opportunities to share and reflect on their perceptions relating to place. Social learning, however, takes time and requires resources to create opportunities to influence the salience of sense of place. The findings point to the value of promoting social learning through engagement activities. Planners, regeneration project officers and citizen groups could utilise sense of place as an organising principle to explore place meanings and as a catalyst for stimulating local action. Participants found it more difficult to discuss sense of place at the neighbourhood level of scale than the town level of scale, partly owing to their differing conception of boundaries and lack of awareness of the neighbourhood beyond the home. This has implications for implementing the localism agenda, suggesting that local action and visioning needs to be situated within activities nested at a range of scales in order to be most effective. The drive towards localism may lead to more self-organising and activism emerging from outside of the formal planning system and becoming a force for collective place shaping. Thus, the benefits of developing a more salient sense of place may also have impacts in less formal ways, such as greater interest and involvement in neighbourhood affairs and increased capacity-building, from which community action could potentially emerge.

In this study, I investigated seven and eight-year-old children’s interest in the boreal forest in Yukon, Canada. This research attempts to provide insight on this topic by giving students autonomy over their movement in a diverse natural landscape, and by investigating where they go and what they do in a forest context. A mixed methodology approach was used to explore children’s interest in the boreal forest, and data were analyzed from the geospatial technology that was affixed to each child, and by inquiring about what the children enjoyed doing in the forest. Key findings from the study included: the importance of play as a primary means of interacting socially with the environment, children’s affiliation and fascination with living things as strong motivators for exploration, and the affordances the landscape offered the children, specifically loose parts (e.g., sticks, berries) and the diverse topography (e.g., hills for running, dense forest for hiding). Based on these findings, I contend that it is becoming increasingly important for educators, parents, and policy makers to understand the child-nature relationship and its relevance to young children. / Graduate

This autoethnographic study details the researcher’s experiences as a high school student and as a new teacher—which eventually led to the creation, implementation, and 8-year life cycle of Mount Logan Discovery, a sixth-grade integrated outdoor experiential learning program in a public middle school. Routine field experiences established academic background knowledge, fostered relationships, built confidence, and provided purpose for curriculum standards. Perspectives of parents, students, colleagues, administrators, and donors add detail. This study responds to calls qualitative studies that focus on how outdoor programs are conducted, the descriptions of experiences and perceptions of students and parents, and how participants were changed through outdoor experiential learning programs. The primary research question was: What are the lived experiences of the researcher as a founder of a public middle school outdoor experiential learning program, from its inception to its closure? Though outdoor experiential learning is the main theme, this study is also about teaching reading and writing in authentic contexts, integrated science, and the struggle for constructivist-minded educators to humanize schools within high-stakes testing culture. From a theoretical standpoint, this is a story of constructivism in praxis. Participants described that outdoor field experiences improved their attitude towards school, their overall confidence, fostered relationships, established a strong classroom community, and boosted their academic performance. Students and parents emphasized the impact integrating literacy with field programs had on their writing and reading skills. Other themes that surfaced include the role of field experiences in building character and allowing students to find joy and happiness in the learning process. Parents and students alike indicated outdoor field experiences had a lasting impact on participants lives. The analysis also identifies six steps for putting principles of constructivism into practice in schools, recommendations for implementing new programs, and components of effective field programs. The narrative spurs parents, educators, administrators, and lawmakers to reflect on what really matters in schools. Until we change the way schools are evaluated, outdoor experiential learning programs like Mount Logan Discovery, and other attempts to enrich students’ educational experiences, will always exist on the fringes and in the shadows of public education, fighting for sustainability.

Denna essä handlar om ett dilemma på fritidshemmet när delar av verksamheten sker i naturen. Dilemmat handlar om svårigheter med att bedriva verksamhet utomhus och om utomhuspedagogik kan vara en metod för att öka förståelsen för naturen och uppfylla läroplanens mål. Syftet med essän är att undersöka vilka fördelar och nackdelar det finns med verksamhet utanför klassrummet. Övriga frågeställningar belyser mina handlingsmöjligheter och om intresset hos eleverna har förändrats gällande utomhusverksamhet. Uppsatsen använder sig av essäskrivande som metod, vilket utifrån mitt dilemma ska få mig att reflektera med hjälp av litteratur och forskning för att kunna nå en djupare reflektion och se på mitt dilemma med nya perspektiv. Min essä belyser vikten av utomhuspedagogik och presenterar för- och nackdelar med att bedriva verksamhet utomhus. Essän förklarar vilka hinder som pedagoger kan uppleva när de använder utomhuspedagogik som metod för verksamheten i skolan och på fritidshemmet. I essän har jag tagit del av Anders Szczepanski, Patrik Grahn och Britta Brügges teorier om utomhuspedagogik. De förespråkar utomhuspedagogik som en metod för lärande och för att öka intresset för att upptäcka naturkunskap i dess rätta miljö. David Thurfjell anser att svenska medborgare har ett eget förhållande till naturen och Yusra Moshtat har arbetat med att få människor med invandrarbakgrund att uppskatta och lära känna naturen. Med hjälp av reflektioner har jag genom essän fått insikter i hur olika elever och pedagoger kan uppfatta naturen och vilka möjligheter/nackdelar utomhuspedagogiken medför. / This essay focuses on the dilemma in the after-school care when some of the activities take place in nature. The dilemma concerns the difficulties of having activities outdoors and if outdoor pedagogy can become a method to increase the understanding of nature and to meet the requirements of the curriculum. The purpose of this essay is to investigate the advantages and disadvantages of activities outside the classroom. The other research questions investigate my alternatives of action and whether the interest of students has changed regarding outdoor activities. The method used is essay writing which, based on my dilemma, will make me reflect with the help of research literature at a deeper level of reflection and look at my dilemma with new perspectives. My essay highlights the importance of outdoor pedagogy and presents the pros and cons of having outdoor activities. The essay explains the obstacles that educators can experience when they use outdoor pedagogy as a method for activities during school and after-schoolcare. In the essay, I have taken part of Anders Szczepanski, Patrik Grahn and Britta Brügge’s theories about outdoor pedagogy. They advocate outdoor pedagogy as a method of learning and to increase interest in discovering science in its proper environment. David Thurfjell believes that Swedsish citizens have their own relationship with nature and Yusra Moshtat has worked to make people with an immigrant background appreciate and get to know nature. With the help of reflections, I have gained insights through the essay into how different students and educators can perceive nature and what opportunities/disadvantages outdoor pedagogy entails.

Teachers in elementary schools have increasingly been required to follow pacing guides, given directives on what curriculum to use, and are provided standardized assessments to measure student learning. Curricula used by elementary teachers rarely address the environmental degradation plaguing the planet. School gardens have been used for over a century by educators as a place to promote students learning about the environment, science, and health. However, few studies have been conducted exploring the ways teachers have been influenced by teaching within school gardens. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to better understand the role of school gardens as a learning place, while exploring the lived experiences of teachers' interactions and experiences within school gardens and ways place-based education influenced teachers' pedagogical approaches and curriculum decisions. The four participants who took part in this study were all elementary school teachers at a Central California school. The guiding research question was stated as: How do school gardens function as learning places? Phenomenological methodology was used to explore the shared experiences teachers had with utilizing the school garden as a learning place. From analysis of interviews, classroom and garden observations, and supplemental curricula used by participants, three themes emerged illuminating ways participants' pedagogy and curriculum decisions had been influenced. Interactions and experiences with school gardens inspired participants to integrate project-based learning and interdisciplinary supplemental curriculum into their lessons. Place-based learning helped to build relationships, and the importance of teachers integrating emotional connections in their instructional practices. By teaching content disciplines using interdisciplinary curricula with lessons taught in the school garden, participants were able to integrate project-based learning activities that increased student responsibilities in the learning process and provided service learning opportunities. Conclusions drawn from the findings were that direct interactions and experiences with elements of place-based learning in a school garden influenced the ways in which participants perceived the purpose of their pedagogical approaches and curriculum decisions. Literature supported these findings and reinforced the influence of lessons in school gardens promoting environmental and health education. Connected with the results of this study, implications for practice and recommendations for future research are also presented.

The purpose of this thesis was to research what factors determines the teachers choice in using outdoor educational activities in their mathematics teaching as well as when and where the outdoors mathematics teaching is being used. The research that lies behind the study shows that there is a knowledge gap in the research on outdoor mathematics, since most of the research conducted today is focusing on a more general use of outdoor pedagogical activities irrespective of which subject content it`s applied on. The relevance of the study therefore becomes an important source of knowledge for teachers and students in teaching education. The survey was conveyed by a questionnaire as a research method with the purpose of being able to examine how the use of outdoor mathematics occurs today, in correlation to factors such as professional experience, education or which grade the teacher mostly teaches. The result of the survey showed that many teachers today use outdoor educational activities in their mathematics teaching. The purpose of the use of outdoor mathematics was primarily to vary their teaching and to concretise the subject content. The result also shows that the forest was the place that is best suited for outdoor mathematics according to the teachers. The teachers, however, shed light on the lack of time when planning and implementing lessons, class sizes and human resources as obstacles for outdoor educational activities. / Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka vilka möjliga faktorer som påverkar lärares val att använda sig av utomhuspedagogiska aktiviteter i matematikundervisningen samt när och var matematikundervisning utomhus används. Tidigare forskning som ligger till grund för studien visar att det finns ett kunskapsglapp om utomhusmatematik i undervisningen då merparten av forskning behandlar en mer generell användning av utomhuspedagogiska aktiviteter oberoende vilket ämnesinnehåll som tillämpas. Studiens relevans blir då en viktig kunskapskälla för verksamma lärare och studenter vid lärarutbildningen.  Undersökningen genomfördes med enkät som datainsamlingsinstrument med syfte att undersöka hur användningen av utomhusmatematik ser ut idag, i relation till faktorer såsom yrkeserfarenhet, utbildning eller vilken årskurs läraren till störst del undervisar i. Resultatet av undersökningen visade att många lärare använder sig av utomhuspedagogiska aktiviteter i sin matematikundervisning. Syftet med utomhusmatematik anser lärare framförallt är att variera sin undervisning och för att konkretisera ämnesinnehållet. Resultatet visar även att skogen är den plats som lämpade sig bäst för utomhusmatematik. Lärare belyser dock tidsbrist vid planering och genomförande av lektioner, klasstorlek och personalresurser som hinder.

The purpose of this study was to discover whether learning garden programs increase access to locally grown foods and successfully empower and include food insecure populations. This study examined the Oregon Food Bank's Seed to Supper program which situates garden-based learning in food insecure communities. Through a mixed-methods community-based research process, this study found that community building, learner empowerment and sustainability leadership in place-based learning garden programs increased access to locally grown foods for food insecure populations. When food insecure populations participated in these learning garden programs they often engaged in practices described in the literature as the "web of inclusion" (Helgesen, 1995). When food insecure populations were engaged in these practices, participation in food democracy and food justice increased. Additionally, participation in learning gardens led to sustainability leadership and increased access to food literacy, which led to greater community health and engaged, local community food systems.